Spark plug change in 03 3.2L CTS

[kelly]

Hi,

Does anyone have a how-to on changing plugs in an '03 3.2L CTS? Also what plugs do you recommend for this car?

[o3cts]

look a couple of pages back Luv , and I talked about it , or try searching it out. if you dont find anything then ill help out.

[dup's Cadi]

PM if you need some pics.

[z06bigbird]

Or, a local garage might print something out from Alldata. They will, however, expect a box of tacos or donuts.

Well worth it--for future questions.

[starkcb]

Originally Posted by dup's Cadi

PM if you need some pics.

Dup,

I would have sent you a PM but I have to have 30 posts before I can do that. I wanted to ask you if you still have some pics of changing the spark plugs on the 03 3.2? If so they would be much appreciated. Just PM me so I can send you my email address.

[Cadiman1983]

I don't have any pics on how to do it, but I did recently install Denso Iridium Power plugs. Haven't had any problems with them, and had a slight increase in mpg. Cost is at $80 for six plugs.

[odysseus]

The drivers side is easy. You pull three bolts holding the PS reservoir, and pull it out of the way. Two bolts hold the coil pack onto the head. I wiggled mine until it came out, but the manual says to insert a special tool (two threaded rods) into the threaded holes, to pull it out.

Passenger side is a bear. Take a look and see, but you need to pull some things mounted above the coil pack. The bear is that two of the bolts that hold the bracket on is down by the exhaust and getting your hands in there is next to impossible. I used a long ratcheting wrench to move it 1/16 turn at a time. Once you have a bare coil pack, you pull it the same way as the drivers side. Changing sparkplugs is the easy part. Make sure you gap them. I recall the factory gap is 0.053". I used the Denso Iridiums. They're very expensive, but the idle smoothed out and I noticed a deeper growl at WOT, and slightly better mpg.

While your at it, pull the intake tube and four bolts that hold the throttle body in place. Spray it with throttle body cleaner and brush the inside with an old tooth brush. I noticed that the main venturi's were very clean, but the vacuum vents were very dirty, and not accessible with the TB mounted. Removal, cleaning, and reinstallation takes a total of 30 minutes, and like the spark plugs is part of the 100K mile service. It has O-rings, so you don't need to worry about gaskets.

[Kuhlsnu]

Seriously, you did that in 30 minutes?

[urbanski]

Originally Posted by dup's Cadi

PM if you need some pics.

post them here. PMs are not meant to deprive the community of valuable information.
By only offering to PM pics, the user you were trying to help spammed to get 30 posts and was punished....but its really your fault.

[starkcb]

I take full responsibility and I was the one that chose to do that.

[odysseus]

Originally Posted by Kuhlsnu

Seriously, you did that in 30 minutes?

Spark plugs . . . no . . . it took me two days to figure it all out, even with the Helm shop manual! The drivers side was done in about an hour. Trying to figure out how I was going to get to the passenger side lower bolts for the bracket took some thinking and a survey of what tools I had. The passenger side took a whole evening.

Throttle body . . . yes. It's right on the front top of the engine. You only need to remove two band clamps for the intake hoses, the electrical connector, and four bolts. It comes right off. 5 minutes to spray and brush, then bolt it on and reassemble. It takes 30 minutes tops (it was more like 15 to 20 minutes).